Some of Charlotte's biggest names in business Monday predicted another year of slow economic growth in a wide-ranging presentation peppered with jokes and jabs - and tempered by warnings of weak hiring, volatile markets and turbulence in Europe.

Bank of America Corp. chief executive Brian Moynihan, Duke Energy head Jim Rogers and other leaders made the predictions at the Charlotte Chamber's annual economic outlook conference. And they called on local and national decision-makers to work together toward a solution.

"For 2012, can we channel our energy to pushing forward as a country, instead of being divisive for another year?" Moynihan said.

This year's projections, delivered from overstuffed armchairs on a stage at the convention center uptown, were more pessimistic than in years past. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker, whose district includes the Carolinas, kicked off the forum by predicting "moderate" growth in 2012 of 2 percent to 2.5 percent. But he said that will depend on consumer confidence, business investment and how Europe's troubles play out.

He also acknowledged a "sizable miss" last year, when he projected economic growth above 3 percent in 2011. GDP growth this year will likely end up below 2 percent, he said.

"So I return to Charlotte this year suitably chastened, with a bit of humility," Lacker told the crowd of businessmen and politicians.

The other panelists - including CEOs Dan DiMicco of Nucor and Chris Kearney of SPX, along with Wells Fargo & Co. executive David Carroll - largely followed Lacker's lead, predicting growth of about 2 percent in 2012.

Moynihan said consumer spending is increasing but noted banks are still trying to juggle regulators' capital requirements and business owners' lending needs. He acknowledged Bank of America was overextended in years past and that higher capital levels will mean less lending - "the question is, do we get the balance right?" he said.

Moynihan also tagged historically low yields on government debt as a symptom of economic uncertainty.

While the low rates are good for taxpayers in keeping government costs down, he said, it's also disappointing that investors and businesses aren't putting money into ventures that would spark more growth.

"No one is taking any risk," he said.

Looking forward, Moynihan called on business and political leaders to pay attention to the "Four E's" - economic growth numbers, Europe, employment and energy. By the last, he meant whether U.S. leaders can muster the constructive energy to solve problems, he said.

DiMicco, whose Charlotte-based Nucor is the country's largest steel producer, delivered the most fiery presentation Monday, standing to speak and chiding government leaders for having the wrong conversations about how to fix the ailing economy.

"We have failed miserably to identify the proper problems, and unless you identify the problem properly, you have no chance in hell - sorry about that, no chance - of finding workable solutions," he said.

The CEO predicted the economy will grow 1 to 2 percent next year and said the U.S. might fall back into recession. He also dismissed the idea that a "skills gap" between workers' training and available jobs is the biggest problem in today's labor market, calling it "complete hogwash."

Instead, employers need to create jobs for the skills workers have, moving back to making and building things, he said.

"We are in a crisis," DiMicco said. "... There is a path out of this, but nobody in Washington is leading us in that direction."

Jim Rogers, who in the past has predicted a flat economy until 2014 or 2015, said unemployment will likely hover around 9 percent next year, though the true rate will be much higher because of underemployed workers and job-seekers who will become discouraged and drop out of the hunt.

He threw a jab at the government, predicting continued dysfunction in Washington and then calling that insight "a brilliant flash of the obvious."

"We have a Washington crowd that continues to say no" to the Simpson-Bowles plan to cut trillions of dollars from the national debt, he said. "It gives us a clear road map forward, but nobody is ready to pick it up, read it and implement it."

And Rogers had a zinger for fellow CEO Moynihan, saying he had researched economic data from UNC Charlotte and Wells Fargo and "was about to pull some data from BofA, but they wanted to charge me five bucks" - a dig at the bank's scrapped plan to charge some debit card customers.

"Sorry, Brian," he added.

In the year ahead, Rogers wants to see more innovation and more entrepreneurs, stronger partnerships between small and large companies, and a return to the confident attitude the U.S. seems to have lost in the recession, he said.

"Simply put, we can win the war for jobs, and we can win the war for jobs in Charlotte," he said. "But the truth of the matter is, we have to have the will."